Turnbull says broadband study too little too late

Updated
February 22, 2013 19:10:00

The Federal Opposition says the study proposed by Mike Quigley should have been done four years ago, before the Government embarked on the NBN. He says if it is completed the information could be useful, but it would need to be a comprehensive analysis of several different options.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: This is the most bizarre twist yet in the whole debate over broadband policy. You know, for almost four years, ever since Labor announced its $50 billion fibre to the premises National Broadband Network, we have been calling for an independent, transparent review of all of the options for delivering fast broadband.

And those calls were motivated by our concern that Labor had chosen the slowest and most expensive way of achieving this upgrade, and they refused to do this and now, after they have spent billions of dollars, committed themselves to huge contracts, they're now admitting that they should have done their homework.

NAOMI WOODLEY: But nonetheless, will it provide information that will be useful to the Coalition in formulating your own policy in the lead-up to the election?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well it may well be very useful, but it would have been a great deal more useful if the Government had done it at the time that they ought to have done it, before they embarked on this project.

I mean, you know Mike Quigley's statement today is a colossal admission of failure. It is admitting that the Government has made a hash of this because what he is doing is admitting that there needs to be an examination of the different options and there should have been.

That should have been done four years ago. The question should have been asked. We want everyone in Australia to have very fast broadband. What are the options to do so? Let's rank them in terms of time of deployment, cost of deployment, service delivery outcome.

That's what we've been begging the Government to do for four years, but they've embarked on this, they've arrogantly dismissed every request for this and now Mike Quigley himself is saying he'd like to see it done.

NAOMI WOODLEY: The Communications Alliance hasn't yet committed to doing this study. Are they the best placed body to carry out this sort of work?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: They couldn't do it themselves, they'd have to commission people to do it, you know. Like all of these studies, it would depend on the, you know, consultants that were employed. If a good comprehensive study can be done, that could be quite useful. It could be very useful, depending on the quality of the work.

But it is just breath-taking that Mike Quigley is admitting this colossal failure. You know, he has dismissed our requests for this sort of analysis with contemptuous scorn for four years, as has his minister, and how they're calling for it. It is breath-taking.